administrative law

First & second editions of this text have long been considered standards in the land surveying profession, but I was disappointed with this (the 3rd) edition. The material is all there, but badly in need of a careful editor. Errors in punctuation and typography were frequent enough to be a real distraction. I found myself pencilling corrections in the margins as I read! For instance, long quotations, not set with a change of fonts, or even quotation marks, made for difficult interpretation. I had the distinct impression that certain chapters were revised in a hurry, and that perhaps each author thought the other was checking the work. In at least one chapter, it appeared that two different authors took a stab at addressing a single subject and both were included in the book although in DRAFT form! The authors also need to update discussions of measurement methodologies to include electronic total stations, data collectors and GPS. Though I'm not a real big adv! ocate of gender-neutral writing, the next edition should totally expunge the term "title men", which must appear 15 times.

Despite these drawbacks, the text remains a handy reference, and will probably remain a standard for some time. Hopefully the 4th Edition will be more carefully revised and edited.